


It's Called A Hug

by DawnsEternalLight



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: Bonding, Brother Feels, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian doesn't understand hugs, Dick Grayson is Batman, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 00:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7662814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/pseuds/DawnsEternalLight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick Grayson's fix all is a hug. So of course Damian should have been expecting to get one after a rough night of patrol. Only, he's never been hugged before when he's done something wrong and has no idea how to deal with it. (DickBat era)</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Called A Hug

Patrol had been a complete disaster. Damian made rookie mistake after rookie mistake all night culminating in his grappling hook misfiring and Dick having to catch him instead of catching the thief they’d been tracking for the better part of a week.

Furious with himself, Damian vaulted out of the Batmobile, and stalked into the bunker ignoring Alfred’s welcoming words at their safe return.

He tore his domino mask off and flung it onto the console before pulling the chair back, ready to drop into it and get straight to work hunting down the man they’d failed to capture, the man _he’d_ failed to capture. A hand stopped the chair and Damian turned to see Dick pulling back his Batman mask, a gentle smile on his face.

Damian knew what was coming next and had no desire to hear it. He briefly considered bolting before Dick’s hand moved from the chair to Damian’s shoulder, gentle but firm in its silent insistence that he stay.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself kiddo, nights like this happen.”

Maybe to Grayson they did, but they weren’t supposed to happen to Damian. He’d been trained to be better. Taught to be perfect even when everything around him was going wrong, and he’d fallen apart tonight. He’d failed the mission, and let a criminal get away.

He set his jaw and looked away from Dick to glare at the computer screen, ready to ignore the rest of his brother’s ‘pep talk’ it didn’t matter what he had to say, Damian knew he’d failed, and the moment Grayson was done with him he was going to do whatever it took to fix it.

Damian was thrown off when instead of a pep talk Dick knelt down and wrapped him in a hug. He’d never received a hug after he’d made a mistake. Never been given any kind of comfort like this. He’d gotten lectures, extra training, and his Mother’s disappointed looks, but never a word of comfort let alone a hug, and he had no idea how to react to it.

“What do you think you’re doing, Grayson?” his tone was as sharp and accusing as he could manage in the situation.

“It’s called a hug, Damian.”

Damian squirmed, but Dick only held on tighter, “Tt, I know what a hug is, what I don’t see is the reason why you would think now is an appropriate time for one.”  

It wasn’t that Damian hadn’t been hugged by Dick before, by now he was used to his adopted brother’s overly affectionate response to everything. Even if it was inane and sentimental it was a key part of Dick’s personality and Damian had learned to accept the hair ruffling and shoulder pats that his brother was so fond of giving him.

But, this hug was unacceptable. Damian had failed and thus didn’t deserve the affection. He’d screwed up, and should be working to either fix it, or accept his punishment, not allow himself to be coddled like a child. If his mother saw him accepting a hug for the failures he’d allowed tonight his punishment would be swift and severe.

Damian tried once again to pull away from Dick, and his brother continued to hold on to him. He wasn’t going to start a fight over this, Grayson simply didn’t understand. He didn’t have Mother’s voice in his head laying out each and every one of his inadequacies. He didn’t hear her instructing Damian in all the ways he could have done better, _should_ have done better.

Or, maybe he did understand. Perhaps Grayson believed that Damian wasn’t good enough to stay with them. He’d overheard his brother speaking of his mother lately with Pennyworth. He’d brushed it off as Dick attempting to gain knowledge about her, now a cold fear stuck in his stomach.  

He was going to send Damian back to his mother.

The thought struck him like a thunderbolt. His failures tonight had been the last straw. Damian knew it would come eventually. With his father gone, his brother had no reason to allow him to stay, and at last Damian had pushed too far. This was the end of his time as Robin. Everything he’d done, everything he’d given up, all wasted in a night’s failures.  

His breath caught, he didn’t want to be sent away. He didn’t want to lose everything he’d worked so hard for. He didn’t want to lose this. The rocky relationship he had with Grayson was all he had left, all he had left of his father and of the life he was trying to make for himself. This hug, so familiar and yet so strange was something he _needed_.

He found himself wanting to return it. Wanting to sink into the warmth that was his brother. A part of him broke there in that hug. A piece of the hard shell he’d worked so hard to build to protect himself was shattered as he stood in Grayson’s arms.

He was crying. He wasn’t sure when the tears had started but all of a sudden his cheeks were wet. Weak. Foolish. Emotional. His mother would be so disappointed. In this moment he didn’t care, he just wanted to rest in the hug.

Dick was stroking his hair now and Damian realized his mistake. He’d shown weakness, he’d let his guard down and he’d allowed tears to materialize. He tore himself from his brother’s arms and bolted. Yes, it was another sign of weakness, but he couldn’t stay here any longer. He was so confused, he needed to be alone to think, he needed air.

When at last he stopped he was at the top of Wayne Tower, perched on its ledge where he could stare out at the city below. It wasn’t much of a hiding spot, but Damian hadn’t been intending on hiding. He’d only wanted to get out of the bunker, and up as high as possible.

What had he been thinking? Allowing himself to cry in front of Grayson? As if the man needed any more reasons to send him away, now he knew how weak Damian really was. He knew that Damian couldn’t control his emotions as well as he was expected to, he-

“Damian, you up here?”

Damian startled, jumping to his feet to face Dick. He stepped down off the ledge and back onto the roof proper when he saw his brother’s alarmed look, “What?” he asked.  

Dick rubbed the back of his head and gave Damian one of his embarrassed smiles, not exactly what he’d been expecting but Damian was never sure what would come out of his brother’s mouth.

“I didn’t mean to surprise you earlier, Little D. I was just trying to tell you that patrol nights like tonight happen sometimes,” Dick stepped forward for all the world looking like he was ready to give Damian another hug.

“Enough!” Damian snapped, he didn’t want to talk about patrol. He didn’t want to hear Grayson try to make his errors sound like they were acceptable, he’d messed up and he could handle the results, “I don’t want to hear it. I screwed up tonight, you don’t have to make it sound like I didn’t.”

Dick looked confused but nodded, “I know, but we can learn from our mistakes, do better next time, now let me give you a good hug and we’ll head down—”

“No,” Damian stepped back, his heels brushing the ledge, “I don’t deserve it.”

Now Dick looked really confused, so Damian continued, “I told you, I failed. After my pathetic attempt tonight I’m not surprised that you’re considering sending me back to Mother.”

“What on Earth are you talking about?” Dick frowned at him for a moment before his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open ever so slightly, “Damian, you don’t think I’m going to send you back to your mother because of tonight do you? There’s no way I’m doing that,” he ran a hand through his hair, “Talia is…well she’s…you know what never mind. Just know this, sending you back to her is the last thing I’d ever do. You belong here, Damian.”

Damian didn’t understand. If Grayson hadn’t been hugging him in preparation of bad news, then what had he hugged Damian for? Surely it hadn’t been for the simple reason of comfort, had it?

Dick’s hands went to Damian’s shoulders and his blue eyes met Damian’s, “I don’t know how things were done in the League, but here you don’t have to deserve a hug to get one, and it’s more than just a reward. More so, you don’t have to deserve my affection to have it. No matter what you do, or how you preform you’re still my partner and my little brother. Nothing can change that.”

“Then you’re hug earlier, was?”

“To help you feel better. You were so upset about patrol,” he shrugged, “I thought it would help.”

Damian nodded, “It did,” he stopped, hesitating, “And I wouldn’t be opposed to another one.”

Dick’s face lit up with a smile and he pulled Damian into the requested hug, this time Damian let himself relax into it. He’d never admit that he hugged Dick back, but he did press closer to his brother, happy for this moment of comfort.


End file.
